A man and a woman stand outside the front gate of number 6 Linden Lea Park, off Glenalbyn Road in Stillorgan, a white-painted, pebble-dashed bungalow with metal windows and timber detailing on the triangular gable. The garden, a square of lumpy, rubbly clay, is defined by a pebble-dashed wall with redbrick capping. In line with the gate is an integrated garage with wooden doors, and in the window to the right there is a SOLD sign.
It is 1950, and the buyers are the Cox family: this charming black and white photograph is among “a few bits and bobs” in a suitcase that the current owners of number 6 found when they were clearing out the attic to do a thorough insulation job in 2010. Neighbours remembered the original owners as a warm and sociable family who seem to have helped set the tone for that new cul-de-sac, built on the grounds of the Glenalbyn estate in 1950; it is still a friendly road where children can play in their pals’ gardens (running through the side passages) and where, during lockdowns, residents exercised in a socially distanced manner at their front gates.
“The house has suited us very well, says the current owner, “from when we bought it as a couple in 2008 to when we grew into it as a family of five.” They have decided to move, rather than build, for more space, and have put their home on the market through Beirne & Wise with an asking price of €765,000. Previous owners had converted the garage to create a wide, south-facing living/diningroom and had opened up the interior to give a largely open-plan space. And because of the drop in level from the front to the back of the plot, says the owner, “from the hall you can look straight through the house and out the kitchen door and see only trees”.
The original hall door, with horizontal panels of glass, is to the side and is sheltered by a porch whose double doors open into an uncomplicated layout, with the hall full of light borrowed from the rooms opening off it. The dark wooden floor continues from here into the living/diningroom, which has two windows and a white marble fireplace; here, as throughout the house, the original 1950s panelled wooden door has been retained. The smallest bedroom beside the bathroom is used as an office. There’s a sunny bedroom at the front, and two more doubles overlooking the back garden. The long, white-fitted kitchen with green mosaic splashback is bright, with a glass door to the garden.
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The trees that you can see from the door and from the vantage point of the large deck, take up the last, wild third of the 90ft garden — the “secret garden” — that the children love to scramble through; there’s a mix of sycamores, ash, the neighbours’ Scots’ pines as well as an apple tree in full fruit, ready to be paired with the blackberries in the hedge. For the most part the garden is laid out in lawn, with a swing set on a bark base; some neighbours have built garden rooms to use as home gyms or offices. A subdivided outhouse contains an outside toilet, and the boiler that the owners replaced as part of their energy upgrade; the Ber is C2.
The owners have secured planning permission, valid for another four years, for a new livingroom, diningroom and kitchen in a single-storey extension to the rear, as well as three new bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, designed by Emmet Duggan Architects, that would double the house to 223 sq m (2,400 sq ft). A look online at other houses on the road shows how much extra space can be gained by building up: farther along the cul-de-sac, Beirne & Wise has agreed the sale for in excess of its €795,000 asking price of number 12, a four-bed, four-bath C2-rated house with attic conversion and 153 sq m; while DNG is selling number 20, a three-bed two-bath D1-rated house with an attic conversion bringing the floor area to 159 sq m, for €795,000.
The cul-de-sac ends at the boundary of the famed Kilmacud Crokes grounds; the local area is teeming with walking-distance amenities including Stillorgan shopping centre, the much-loved Nimble Fingers toy shop and the park at Clonmore, not to mention lots of schools. And despite the quiet surrounds, it’s only minutes by car to the N11 and to the M50.
